The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-11-26
A VISIT TO OUIDA.
Florence Letter.

VI NbAilhS h'NA ing my respects. May l not hope that you will permit me this pleasure?
 "With great respect, am very truly yours, NJ. "To Madame de la Rame, Villa Fari-
 nola, via di Scandicci"
 This note, together with letter of the American conusul, sent by post to "Ouida," the noted novelist, who lives ill the suburbs of Florence, two miles without the gate of San Ere diano.
 "Of course" said an acquaintance of mine to whom 1 showed a copy of the note-an American lady but, having married Florentine, for many years a resident of Florence-''of course, she will see you. She is very vain. Ouida would see anybody who wrote like this-her works and genius,' of course-but what is this?" getting down to the address. "'Madame de la Rame?' That settles it," and my friend laid down the letter and looked at me, as much as to say, chow could you have been so unwise?"
 "Settles it? Settles what?" I que ried.
 "Settles it that you will never sec Ouida. You have touched her upon her most sensitive point. Madame why, she will never pardon such an oversight"
 "But is she not madam? Is she not married?"
 "Certainly not. Sit down, though, and l will tell you all about it." An interview at first hand is better than one at second hand; but one at second hand is better than none at all. Sev- eral days had elapsed and there had come no reply from Ouida. Would it not be well to hear what my friend had to say? thought so.
 "You say she is not married?" said. "I have heard that she married the Marquis de la Rame. Is not that true?"
 Not a bit of it. The nearest that Ouida ever came to getting married was right here in Florence several years ago. was living here at the time and remember the sensation cre- ated as if it were yesterday. There was an Italian nobleman who had been paying her some attentions which she took to be serious. Ouida may have talent, but she certainly has no beauty. She is painfully homely, and moreover, even at the time of which I am now speaking, she was long past the meridian of life. The marquis was aware of these things, and he made the mistake of imagining Ouida was aware of them also. He thought this, and did not believe that Ouida would take his words seriously. She did take his words seriously, however, and made every preparation for mar rying, having the troussedu prepared and the other necessary arrangements made. Then came the catastrophe, a scene that would form an admirable chapter in one of her dramatic novels. Did you think was in earnest? asked the marquis when pushed to the wall"
 "Was not that rather brutal way of putting it?" interrupted.
 "What else could he do? He had not dreamed that she took the matter seriously; her actions now showed him his mistake, and he was compelled to confess that he had been 'trifling' with her affections. After the first explosion, Ouida set about devising a way to be revenged. She bought a villa adjoining that of the marquis, and providing pistol, kept it on her hall table, it is said, with the inten- tion of shooting her delinquent lover the first time he passed. Whether, when the decisive moment came she relented, or whether no decisive mo- ment came, the marquis prudently re- maining away, can not say, but at all events there was no shooting and no more sensation that year. Flor ence, however, had not heard tho last of it, for the next year her novel, A Winter City, was published, and everybody saw that was the manner in which she meant to revenge herself on the way Florence, or at least one of the Florentines, had treated her. ihe characters in "A Winter City are portraits of Florentines easily recog- nized, and, l need scarcely add, not very flattering or pleasing to the orig inals."
 "Are her books much read in Italy?"
 "No, not all of them. "A Winter City and 'Ariadne' have been trans lated into Italian, and are read to a considerable extent, at least in Flor ence. do not know that any other of her novels are translated into Ital- ian. There may be others, but we do not see much of them here"
 "Is Ouida much of society wo- man?"
 "Well, can hardly say," said my friend, with peculiar smile. "Men are fond of her society. She is intel lectual, but very peculiar, and espe- cially since her Winter City society